Quote Originally Posted by Heavy H
For most practical purposes you're right - more lumens mean bigger buds. That's because in most gardens, light output is the bottle neck. However, plants suffer radiation damage from the sun just like humans. Get enough light and they suffer from it, get even more and they die.

But more importantly there is a point of dimishing returns at a certain point, and I want to know what those are for different plants, if anyone knows.



So obviously getting a plant from temperate regions where the plant has to adapt and funtion best at much lower rates of light would be a bad thing then? Now we're getting somewhere.



Ok, so we disagree on this one point. I think the point of diminishing returns ( ie. not buds getting smaller, but getting less effect per watt used ) will start at 50.000-80.000 lumens. This is from reading at OG and countless other sources. That's why I want a plant that can take big amounts of light...

s12fever: Thanks, but I like to grow just one kind of plant, and also I want a strain I can read about first. It's cool of you though, so thanks again.

Sorry I couldn't help more, but I have been out of the growing game for like 10 years now, but will be back again someime in the future. I understand your point about radiational effects, but I was under the impression that harmful UV radiational rays are are essentially in very low numbers in comparison to the sun. Since the source of light from the sun is different than from an electric lamp I could be wrong, but I will have to look into this further as I was primarily an outdoor grower. As far as I recall UV b is the most important, but in what quanity I don't think I have ever come across it.

Also, most plants that suffer radiation damages are plants that have been breed, domesticated or evolved in an area that had little sun (shade plants). This selective breeding could have ommitted certain properties that help protect it from the sun. Mj is not such a plant and only recently has been subjected to selective breeding by humans. This is why I say that I would start with your favorite 100% sativa strain since it has naturally thrived in the most intense sun exposed area of earth (not including deserts for obvious reasons).

Unless someone has data or are seriously credible source I would say that you would want a pure Sativa strain that originated in an equatorial region. I say this because we can infer that since it originated there that it grew in the area of earth with the most intense sun exposure. Further, if you were looking for plants that had higher exposure rates to harmful types of UV radiation then maybe there is a strain that originated in Australia or has been there for many years as I recall Australia having the highest cancer rate due to lack of ozone.


Possibly an Ozone gen might make your enviroment more receptive to higher UV radiation since it would act as a natural barrier, but then distance could play a part here also.


Well if you come across this info it would be nice if you directed people towards it, but I will tell you this.....I have NEVER seen an MJ plant die from too much light, whether indoors or out. I have seen death do to thermal problems from light emittance (indoors), but not from UV radiational damage. If you are truely interested then do the community a favor and possibly start conducting some experimentation on various strains. This is something that would most likely take years as there are many variables that could effect yield.

Food for thought...also realize that yeild and potency are not directly, linearly corelated.